Because, yes, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood might be the flour, butter, sugar, and eggs in this Victoria Sponge – but they're nothing without the buttercream and strawberry jam that is Mel and Sue.

The duo threw themselves into their roles as presenters with gusto, really getting to know each and every contestant, helping them out when times got rough, and keeping them from crying over spilled milk (or melted Baked Alaska).

Now, with Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry threatening to follow Mel and Sue's example and quit the show, it seems as if Channel 4 have paid a whopping £75 million for...

Well, for a tent and some cake tins.

Soggy bottoms all round then, yeah?

This means that Channel 4 will have to build it all back up from scratch – with the likes of Jamie Oliver, Davina McCall, Kirsty Allsopp, Jo Brand, and Jennifer Saunders all tipped as potential replacements for the classic Bake Off team.

It was the BBC who lovingly scooped them up and gave them what they kneaded (pun intentional). And, for almost a decade, they lovingly moulded the show and helped it to rise into the quintessentially British programme we all know and love today.

They brought us new recipes, taught us all we needed to know about breads, and biscuits, and bakes. They went all over the country searching for amateur star bakers with buckets of personality. They gave Mel and Sue free reign to write their own jokes, and Paul and Mary the power to choose the challenges.

Best of all, amongst all the laughter and chaotic flour spillages, they let us see people doing their very best at the thing they loved the most – and truly inspired us in the process.

“I’m never gonna put boundaries on myself ever again. I’m never gonna say I can’t do it. I’m never gonna say ‘maybe’. I’m never gonna say, ‘I don’t think I can’,” proclaimed Nadiya Hussain when she won the show last year.

“I can and I will.”

Without the BBC at the helm, and with Paul, Mary, Mel, and Sue jumping ship, Bake Off is well and truly doomed to suffer a fate worse than TV death.

Instead of being allowed to bow out gracefully, it will be resurrected into a mutated version of itself, staggering back onto our screens time and time again.

Or, you know, maybe the BBC can create their very own Fake Off to rival the Channel 4 show, bring back all our old favourites, and continue to provide us with the ultimate cosy autumnal viewing treat we need in our lives.

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Kayleigh Dray

Kayleigh Dray is editor of Stylist.co.uk, where she chases after rogue apostrophes and specialises in films, comic books, feminism and television. On a weekend, you can usually find her drinking copious amounts of tea and playing boardgames with her friends.